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Posted

Spent my day with truss rod adjustments and adjusting the heights of the humbucker pole pieces and the pickup itself to get rid of the muddiness. Sounds much, much better now. Ordered a Reverend soft-touch spring for the Bigsby. The one in it is too stiff, and I don't have the patience to let it break in. 

The guitar sure is a pretty thing. I almost went with the sparkle Lake Placid blue. Happy with the Aztec gold. 

I will say, every Fender and Squier (aside from the Joe Strummer tele) I've ever gotten has needed tweaking out of the box to get it to sound right. The biggest offender was the Vintera Nocaster. I've got three Sires and everyone was perfect out of the box. How can they accomplish that, but Fender can't?

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Posted
1 hour ago, Deej said:

Spent my day with truss rod adjustments and adjusting the heights of the humbucker pole pieces and the pickup itself to get rid of the muddiness. Sounds much, much better now. Ordered a Reverend soft-touch spring for the Bigsby. The one in it is too stiff, and I don't have the patience to let it break in. 

The guitar sure is a pretty thing. I almost went with the sparkle Lake Placid blue. Happy with the Aztec gold. 

I will say, every Fender and Squier (aside from the Joe Strummer tele) I've ever gotten has needed tweaking out of the box to get it to sound right. The biggest offender was the Vintera Nocaster. I've got three Sires and everyone was perfect out of the box. How can they accomplish that, but Fender can't?

It was pretty crazy how the Sire was just ready out of the box.  Even still in tune.  

The wife and I were out running around this evening and we swung by Guitar Center and they had a Reverend.  I’ve never tried one so I checked it out. It played nice, but I’m kind of a snob on how a neck and fretboard edges should feel after having my Sire S7V.  It’s ruined me. 
 

So it’s not just Fender. 

Posted (edited)
51 minutes ago, AnotherUTFan said:

This is actually pretty true.

 

 

It's very true.  A conversation we have here on occasion, over the years, under various guises.  There's a point of technical ability that while impressive to other guitarists, is not really particularly compelling to the average listener.  As my Dad used to say, "If you're a rock or country or pop band, you lose more audience the more complicated your sound gets.  Keep it simple.  Musicians play themselves out of gigs trying to get technically better."  He was right.   It's why millions of people will go hear the Stones play three chords rocking out, and Eric Johnson - while technically a master - plays to much smaller houses.  Music is about feeling.   A lot more people share the feeling of the simpler music of say, the Stones (insert any other pop/rock/country three chords and the truth band here) than they do the feeling of the music of Mr. Johnson.  It's like the whole "you using too many big words, so imma take it as a sign of disrespect" meme.  

tl/dr - Play music that makes the girls dance, and the guys buy them beer.

Edited by Chad Fuck
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Posted
All 100% true. It’s also what made Eddie Van Halen a 1 of 1 genius. 

And supernova level anomalous. He was technically amazing, yet could swing and rock with the best of them. I was just sitting around last night riffing on the chorus to Panama in front of the tv last night.

Simple, swingy, yet nothing at all like anything else anyone was doing and takes some above average technique to get right. Eddie was a beast and it’s why we remember him so fondly.
Posted

I'd put Knopfler in that camp.  He's super proficient but he has a way of connecting with big audiences who aren't guitar geeks.  I suspect it's (a) superior songwriting and (b) very pedestrian singing.

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Posted (edited)

People listen to music for different reasons.  For the vast majority, it's because the lyrical content of a song resonates to them personally, and the music around it supports that emotional connection.  It has nothing to do with technical ability with an instrument.  As mentioned, Knopfler is no doubt a virtuoso as a guitarist.  That's not why "Money For Nothing" has 650 million streams on Spotify.  It's because working a shit job and seeing someone making a shit ton more with a lot less effort is kind of a universal experience that everyone has had at least some point in their lives.

I strongly err on the wrong side of that equation in my own song writing/playing.  But, I'm not really looking to connect with a big audience.  I just do what's meaningful to me and what I like listening to, and if it connects with anyone, great!  If not, that's cool, too.  I have tried to write some songs that might be more universally appealing, but... it doesn't feel genuine to me.  It's not authentic.  It's me doing what I criticize Joe Bonamassa for.

So far, my biggest reach with one of my own songs and guerrilla marketing is a few thousand streams on Spotify, which means my music might pay for a couple new guitar picks this year.

Edited by Goredho
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Posted
5 minutes ago, Goredho said:

 

I strongly err on the wrong side of that equation in my own song writing/playing.

 

Yeah but that's just because you are actually good.

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Posted
39 minutes ago, G650 said:

 

Yeah but that's just because you are actually good.

Thanks, I appreciate it.   I just do what I do.  And if I've already written my most compelling song to others, I'm ok with that.  I enjoy the creative process and outlet of songwriting/composing music that strikes a chord in myself.  That is all the payoff I personally need.

Posted
2 hours ago, Goredho said:

Thanks, I appreciate it.   I just do what I do.  And if I've already written my most compelling song to others, I'm ok with that.  I enjoy the creative process and outlet of songwriting/composing music that strikes a chord in myself.  That is all the payoff I personally need.

 

Oh, 100% man, me too. I've come to realize two things, first, like you say, the payoff to me is expression and creation. The second is as much as I'd like to write epic stuff, I naturally tend to create hooks and acerbic/nihilistic lyrics, and I'm best when I do that. When I try to force other things it's really apparent, at least to me. Also I guess a third thing is I need a live band to play worth a shit. The interplay is critical to me, and also doing the engineering myself as I'm trying to track really throws me off.

It's kind of wild really, because when I started playing guitar, I quickly joined a band we named after the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd ( I am sure I've told this story before), who along with Led Zeppelin, made up the Holy Trinity. And I'd even say that Floyd and Zep were the ones we geeked out on the most, though we played more Stones songs in our set by a long shot. I actually don't recall playing a Floyd song live with that group to be honest which is strange as we were crazy into them. There was talk of doing Dogs but I don't think we ever did it. But one asterisk is I've always had that sort of duality with classic rock and modern. My best friend from Junior High on started a band, and was totally a contemporary style (both of these bands, mine and his were originals bands, not cover groups), and they went for about a year as a trio before the really wanted a second guitarist, and tried a few dudes out to not a lot of success. After awhile the rhythm section were leaning on my buddy to get me to come over, and he was resistant for a couple reasons, most of which is not asking me to leave my other band. The other group kind of imploded right about that time though so the rest is history as they say. We ended up playing through most of us going to college, cutting a couple EPs, and all that mess. Our songs were definitely a bit more involved than what my actual songwriting voice was, they tended to my buddies tastes somewhat as he was the main writer, and honestly I was still finding it at that point anyway. So somehow through all that, I stumbled onto Social Distortion, and it was like a bolt of lightning in terms of me knowing, A) what I wanted to say and B) the fact I was way more into songwriting than playing an instrument. I had listened to some punk rock before (I was actually a punk rocker for Halloween in 4th grade somehow, this is in the 80's), I remember hearing Pennywise's first album in like '91 maybe? but when I first heard Social D it all changed and I had a clarity that was not there before.

 

So this post clearly got away from me, wow, but I guess the short short version is I love to geek out on Gilmour stuff, and my style of leads is completely a derivative of his, but the songwriting stuff is 3 chords and the truth all the way.

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Posted

I'm kinda the opposite of you guys . . . I've spent a ton of time in the studio recording really great songwriters who may or may not sing all that well, but it all sunk in and that's pretty much the only stuff I want to write.  It might be country, classic rock, Americana or alt rock, whatever happens to pop out, but I could not be less interested in demonstrating any kind of chops, I just want to record a reasonably tight band with hooks.

Not that y'all don't like hooks, but I could never do some of what y'all do.  It's just not in me.  Stick a French horn in my hand, OK, I'll go nuts, but those days are LONG gone.

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Posted
39 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

I'm kinda the opposite of you guys . . . I've spent a ton of time in the studio recording really great songwriters who may or may not sing all that well, but it all sunk in and that's pretty much the only stuff I want to write.  It might be country, classic rock, Americana or alt rock, whatever happens to pop out, but I could not be less interested in demonstrating any kind of chops, I just want to record a reasonably tight band with hooks.

Not that y'all don't like hooks, but I could never do some of what y'all do.  It's just not in me.  Stick a French horn in my hand, OK, I'll go nuts, but those days are LONG gone.

Yeah, there is no right/wrong answer here.  Just what you personally find meaningful and compelling in music.

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Posted

I don’t know when I decided i didn’t care that much about guitar acrobatics, but it was high school at least. It can be fun but I don’t care that much, and I’d pick songwriting talent over instrumental talent every time. 
 

playing in a band, I think we fed off of our lead singer’s insecurity - he’s a shitty musician and a shitty singer so he’d go crazy and climb the rafters and swing the mic and come out in a Halloween costume and OK that’s the deal - we’re putting on a show whether the music is good or not. I think we did have enough talent to come up with parts and duct tape them together into songs with very little idea of what we were doing. The first time we worked with a real producer who pointed out where our hooks were and applied labels to the different parts we repeated and made suggestions about why did things a certain way or why are we even doing this part (…. yeah we all hate it, it’s just that’s where we play it? We don’t have to?) was a revelation.

I’m all about the little tasty hook nuggets and getting the proportions right. Not saying I’m great at it, but I love little melodies and counter melodies and trying to find a way to always have something you could whistle happening somewhere.

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Posted

Anecdotally, my daughter's band did a full pre-production effort for their debut full length in Austin and sent the tapes to Will Yip so he would know what was coming.

He sliced and diced, which initially made the gals uneasy but when they listened to his new arrangements they agreed that he zeroed in on the hooks and cut the chaff.  When he was alive, Steve Albini would tell you that a producer is evil, but I don't think that's universally true.  A good one can make a ton of difference.  I've heard it for sure.

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Posted
11 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Anecdotally, my daughter's band did a full pre-production effort for their debut full length in Austin and sent the tapes to Will Yip so he would know what was coming.

He sliced and diced, which initially made the gals uneasy but when they listened to his new arrangements they agreed that he zeroed in on the hooks and cut the chaff.  When he was alive, Steve Albini would tell you that a producer is evil, but I don't think that's universally true.  A good one can make a ton of difference.  I've heard it for sure.

 

Yeah, beyond just the talent, an objective pair of ears is so, so huge. I struggle mightily with beating stuff to death, simply because I'm too close to it.

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Posted (edited)

I think there's a lot of room for interesting music between 3 chords and the truth songwriter types ala Tom Petty and guitar virtuosos like Yngwie Malmsteen who only view a song as a platform on which to jerk off 64th notes out of their fretboard.  I don't know enough about Tim Henson to know where he might fall on that spectrum, but I'd be surprised if he isn't a lot closer to the latter than the former.

What interests me are elaborate, varied compositions involving excellent musicians.  Like, my favorite band is probably Yes, and "Heart of the Sunrise" is my favorite song of theirs.  I can put that on over a good pair of headphones and it takes me on an 11 and a half minute journey where the world fades away (gummies help).  I can't recall a single line of lyrics from it.  I vaguely have ascertained its about being lost in a city, but its kind of silly if you were to just read the lyrics.  But Jon Anderson has such a great voice, it doesn't matter.  He could sing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" with the same melodies in the song and it would still be incredibly beautiful and moving to me.  And yeah, there is some virtuosity on display, at times.

I am sure a lot of people would listen to it and have the reaction that its just a meandering, self-indulgent mess.  And that would be a perfectly valid opinion.  Don't care, had ear sex.

 

Edited by Goredho

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